Richard Corbett
Encyclopedia
Richard Corbett was a Member of the European Parliament
for the Labour Party
for Yorkshire and the Humber
, serving between 1996 and 2009. Under the single member constituency system that predates the present proportional representation
system, he represented Merseyside West
from 1996 to 1999.
He lost his seat in the 2009 European Parliament elections
. He is now advisor to President Herman Van Rompuy
.
, the International School of Geneva
and Trinity College, Oxford
and later did an external doctorate at the University of Hull
. At school, he was captain of the football team and played for the junior team of a Swiss second division club. At university, he was the secretary of the Labour Club
and chairman of the student Oxford Committee for Europe. He co-ordinated the Oxford student "Yes" campaign in the 1975 referendum on membership of the European Community. He also skied for Oxford against Cambridge.
in Britain and then to the international presidency of the youth wing of the European Movement and of the Union of European Federalists, the Young European Federalists (JEF), a post he held from 1979 to 1981, drafting their Manifesto which was the first to coin the phrase "democratic deficit" in relation to the European Parliament's then lack of any power over European legislation.
Corbett was secretary-general of the European Co-ordination Bureau of International non-governmental Youth Organisations from 1977 to 1981, representing youth organisations in the Council of Europe
's European Youth Foundation and European Youth Centre; helped to set up the European Youth Forum
; and represented western European youth organisations in negotiations with Eastern European organisations pursuant to the Helsinki Treaty (as well as at the World Festival of Youth in Havana in 1978 along with Charles Clarke
and Peter Mandelson
). He worked with Altiero Spinelli
MEP on the latter's proposal for a draft treaty establishing a European Union, adopted by the European Parliament in 1984.
Before being elected to the European Parliament, Corbett worked in the voluntary sector
and as a civil servant http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/abo_cv.htm, later becoming a policy advisor to and then Deputy Secretary General of the Socialist Group
in the European Parliament. He worked on drafting the parts of the treaties of Maastricht
and Amsterdam
that increased the powers of the Parliament, notably helping to draft the "codecision procedure" which now applies for adopting European legislation through successive readings of the Parliament and the Council
.
and the spokesman for the Labour Party
, as well as the whole of the wider Group of the Party of European Socialists
, on European constitutional affairs. In 2006, he was elected Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party
, which he remained until the end of his period as an MEP, declining (to some surprise) to challenge for the leadership when Gary Titley stood down in 2008.
In 2003 his proposals to re-write the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure were largely accepted. In 2004–05, he was the co-rapporteur (with Iñigo Méndez de Vigo
) for Parliament on the Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe
. This report formed the basis of Parliament's official position on the treaty, which he was then invited to present to several national parliaments.
In 2005, he was appointed as Parliament's negotiator (along with Joseph Daul
MEP) to broker a new system of parliamentary scrutiny over Commission implementing measures (under the previously much-criticised "comitology
" procedure), which led to an agreement among the Council of ministers, the Commission
and the Parliament in 2006 giving Parliament the right to veto
quasi-legislative implementing measures. This represented a major increase in Parliament's powers over the Commission.
In 2007–08, he was again co-rapporteur with Iñigo Méndez de Vigo
for Parliament on the Treaty of Lisbon
, which replaced the constitutional treaty after two member states declined to ratify it, and was again rapporteur for a new overhaul of Parliament's procedures in 2009.
Throughout his career, Richard Corbett has been a strong advocate of EU reform and has a particular interest in improving democratic accountability by continuing to increase the European Parliament's power within the EU institutional system. Professor Juliet Lodge of Leeds University has named Corbett as one of five "movers and shakers" in the European Parliament who "have brought the European Parliament from being a mere talking shop to a legislature with genuine power".
and chaired by the former Portuguese
Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Arnaut. Corbett chaired the sub-group on political aspects. He has maintained an interest in the governance of football ever since, taking up a number of issues with UEFA
.
He held a number of offices in the Labour Party. As well as being Deputy Leader of the Labour MEPs (EPLP
), he was on the Regional Board (Yorkshire
) and the National Policy Forum. He was Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe MEP group and elected national chair in 2009 succeeding Mary Creagh
MP.
Richard Corbett is also the co-author of an eponymous academic textbook on the European Parliament (now the standard reference book on it across Europe) and several other publications (see below). He was the first MEP from any country to have a blog
http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/blog/.
Corbett starred in the docudrama film “Do it like a European?” which won a prize at the international Winton Film Contest.
Richard Corbett lives in Saltaire
, Yorkshire
, a village which enjoys UNESCO World Heritage status (which Corbett helped campaign for) He had his constituency office in Leeds
, where he shared premises with Hilary Benn
MP.
He speaks English
, French
, German
and Dutch
.
(UKIP).
In this context, he courted controversy in June 2004 with claims in The Independent
newspaper of UKIP links with the far-right British National Party
in the local elections: "In Yorkshire, where both the BNP
and UKIP put up candidates, they appear to have come to an arrangement not to stand against one another".
Richard Corbett's pamphlet "25 Things You Didn't Know When You Voted For UKIP", published by Britain in Europe in 2004, was the subject of further controversy in October 2004, when UKIP demanded that the pamphlet be pulped, claiming that one item in the pamphlet "breaks a court order banning publication of details of a legal action involving one of the party's MEPs", namely the fraud case against Ashley Mote
MEP. In practice, this gave further publicity to the pamphlet, which was not pulped, as it did not break any court order.
Following Ashley Mote’s imprisonment in September 2007 for fraud, Corbett called on the government to change the law which allowed the former UKIP MEP to be paid in full during his spell in jail. The Minister responsible for payment of MEPs (and MPs), Harriet Harman
promised to look into the matter.
, which saw a big fall in the Labour share of the vote in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandal. The BNP took the seat. The BBC website carried the following comment from their European editor, Mark Mardell:
Mark Mardell had previously referred to Richard Corbett as:
In December 2009 he was invited to join the private office ("cabinet") of the first full-time President of the European Council
, Herman Van Rompuy
, as his advisor on constitutional issues, but also handling his relations with the European Parliament and national parliaments, with the Committee of Regions and the Economic and Social Committee as well as helping on relations with some governments, including the UK .
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
for the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
for Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber (European Parliament constituency)
Yorkshire and the Humber is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 6 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :...
, serving between 1996 and 2009. Under the single member constituency system that predates the present proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
system, he represented Merseyside West
Merseyside West (European Parliament constituency)
Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...
from 1996 to 1999.
He lost his seat in the 2009 European Parliament elections
European Parliament election, 2009
Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history...
. He is now advisor to President Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Achille Van Rompuy is the first long-term and full-time President of the European Council...
.
Education
Corbett was educated at Farnborough Road School in SouthportSouthport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, the International School of Geneva
International School of Geneva
The International School of Geneva , also known as Ecolint, is a private international school based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the oldest currently operating International School in the world...
and Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
and later did an external doctorate at the University of Hull
University of Hull
The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...
. At school, he was captain of the football team and played for the junior team of a Swiss second division club. At university, he was the secretary of the Labour Club
Oxford University Labour Club
Oxford University Labour Club was founded in 1919 to provide a voice for Labour Party values and for socialism and social democracy at Oxford University, England...
and chairman of the student Oxford Committee for Europe. He co-ordinated the Oxford student "Yes" campaign in the 1975 referendum on membership of the European Community. He also skied for Oxford against Cambridge.
Before the European Parliament
Richard Corbett's activities in the European Students at Oxford led on to him being elected first to the youth board of the European MovementEuropean Movement
The European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it.-History:...
in Britain and then to the international presidency of the youth wing of the European Movement and of the Union of European Federalists, the Young European Federalists (JEF), a post he held from 1979 to 1981, drafting their Manifesto which was the first to coin the phrase "democratic deficit" in relation to the European Parliament's then lack of any power over European legislation.
Corbett was secretary-general of the European Co-ordination Bureau of International non-governmental Youth Organisations from 1977 to 1981, representing youth organisations in the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
's European Youth Foundation and European Youth Centre; helped to set up the European Youth Forum
European Youth Forum
The European Youth Forum is the platform of the national youth councils and international non-governmental youth organisations in Europe...
; and represented western European youth organisations in negotiations with Eastern European organisations pursuant to the Helsinki Treaty (as well as at the World Festival of Youth in Havana in 1978 along with Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
and Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
). He worked with Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli was an Italian political theorist and a European federalist. Spinelli is referred to as one of the "Founding Fathers of the European Union" due to his co-authorship of the Ventotene Manifesto, his founding role in the European federalist movement, his strong influence on the first...
MEP on the latter's proposal for a draft treaty establishing a European Union, adopted by the European Parliament in 1984.
Before being elected to the European Parliament, Corbett worked in the voluntary sector
Voluntary sector
The voluntary sector or community sector is the sphere of social activity undertaken by organizations that are for non-profit and non-governmental. This sector is also called the third sector, in reference to the public sector and the private sector...
and as a civil servant http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/abo_cv.htm, later becoming a policy advisor to and then Deputy Secretary General of the Socialist Group
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists is a European political party led by Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The PES comprises social-democratic national-level political parties primarily from Member state of the European Union, as well as other nations of the European continent. The...
in the European Parliament. He worked on drafting the parts of the treaties of Maastricht
Maastricht Treaty
The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty...
and Amsterdam
Amsterdam Treaty
The Amsterdam Treaty, officially the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty of the European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts, was signed on 2 October 1997, and entered into force on 1 May 1999; it made substantial changes to the Maastricht Treaty,...
that increased the powers of the Parliament, notably helping to draft the "codecision procedure" which now applies for adopting European legislation through successive readings of the Parliament and the Council
European Council
The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy...
.
The European Parliament
Corbett was a member of the Parliament's Constitutional Affairs committeeCommittee on Constitutional Affairs
The Committee on Constitutional Affairs is a committee of the European Parliament dealing with institutional matters such as the treaties and the Parliament's rules of procedure. As of 2008, it is chaired by Jo Leinen MEP .-External links:*...
and the spokesman for the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, as well as the whole of the wider Group of the Party of European Socialists
Group of the Party of European Socialists
The Group of the Party of European Socialists was a political group of the European Parliament. It was made up of MEPs elected from the lists of member parties of the Party of European Socialists....
, on European constitutional affairs. In 2006, he was elected Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party
European Parliamentary Labour Party
The European Parliamentary Labour Party is an integral part of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and of the British Labour Party. Labour's Euro Parliamentarians represent their voters so as to advance democracy, social justice, prosperity, peace and sustainable development in the UK,...
, which he remained until the end of his period as an MEP, declining (to some surprise) to challenge for the leadership when Gary Titley stood down in 2008.
In 2003 his proposals to re-write the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure were largely accepted. In 2004–05, he was the co-rapporteur (with Iñigo Méndez de Vigo
Íñigo Méndez de Vigo
Íñigo Méndez De Vigo y Montojo is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament with the People's Party since 1992, and Member of the Bureau of the European People's Party....
) for Parliament on the Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...
. This report formed the basis of Parliament's official position on the treaty, which he was then invited to present to several national parliaments.
In 2005, he was appointed as Parliament's negotiator (along with Joseph Daul
Joseph Daul
Joseph Daul is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the East of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement , a member-party of the European People's Party...
MEP) to broker a new system of parliamentary scrutiny over Commission implementing measures (under the previously much-criticised "comitology
Comitology
Comitology in the European Union refers to the committee system which oversees the delegated acts implemented by the European Commission.-Overview:...
" procedure), which led to an agreement among the Council of ministers, the Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
and the Parliament in 2006 giving Parliament the right to veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
quasi-legislative implementing measures. This represented a major increase in Parliament's powers over the Commission.
In 2007–08, he was again co-rapporteur with Iñigo Méndez de Vigo
Íñigo Méndez de Vigo
Íñigo Méndez De Vigo y Montojo is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament with the People's Party since 1992, and Member of the Bureau of the European People's Party....
for Parliament on the Treaty of Lisbon
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....
, which replaced the constitutional treaty after two member states declined to ratify it, and was again rapporteur for a new overhaul of Parliament's procedures in 2009.
Throughout his career, Richard Corbett has been a strong advocate of EU reform and has a particular interest in improving democratic accountability by continuing to increase the European Parliament's power within the EU institutional system. Professor Juliet Lodge of Leeds University has named Corbett as one of five "movers and shakers" in the European Parliament who "have brought the European Parliament from being a mere talking shop to a legislature with genuine power".
Other activities
In 2006 he served on the Independent Review of the governance of European Football, set up by several national governments and UEFAUEFA
The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
and chaired by the former Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Arnaut. Corbett chaired the sub-group on political aspects. He has maintained an interest in the governance of football ever since, taking up a number of issues with UEFA
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
.
He held a number of offices in the Labour Party. As well as being Deputy Leader of the Labour MEPs (EPLP
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
), he was on the Regional Board (Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
) and the National Policy Forum. He was Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe MEP group and elected national chair in 2009 succeeding Mary Creagh
Mary Creagh
Mary Helen Creagh is a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament for Wakefield since 2005. She was appointed to the shadow cabinet on 7 October 2010.- Background :...
MP.
Richard Corbett is also the co-author of an eponymous academic textbook on the European Parliament (now the standard reference book on it across Europe) and several other publications (see below). He was the first MEP from any country to have a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/blog/.
Corbett starred in the docudrama film “Do it like a European?” which won a prize at the international Winton Film Contest.
Richard Corbett lives in Saltaire
Saltaire
Saltaire is a Victorian model village within the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, a village which enjoys UNESCO World Heritage status (which Corbett helped campaign for) He had his constituency office in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, where he shared premises with Hilary Benn
Hilary Benn
Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds Central since 1999. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007 and as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...
MP.
He speaks English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
.
Richard Corbett versus the UK Independence Party
Richard Corbett has been critical of the United Kingdom Independence PartyUnited Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
(UKIP).
In this context, he courted controversy in June 2004 with claims in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper of UKIP links with the far-right British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
in the local elections: "In Yorkshire, where both the BNP
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
and UKIP put up candidates, they appear to have come to an arrangement not to stand against one another".
Richard Corbett's pamphlet "25 Things You Didn't Know When You Voted For UKIP", published by Britain in Europe in 2004, was the subject of further controversy in October 2004, when UKIP demanded that the pamphlet be pulped, claiming that one item in the pamphlet "breaks a court order banning publication of details of a legal action involving one of the party's MEPs", namely the fraud case against Ashley Mote
Ashley Mote
Ashley Mote was a non-inscrit Member of the European Parliament for South East England. An outspoken critic of fraud in the European Institutions, he himself was convicted of benefit fraud in 2007 for which he served a nine-month prison sentence and was described by the trial judge as "a truly...
MEP. In practice, this gave further publicity to the pamphlet, which was not pulped, as it did not break any court order.
Following Ashley Mote’s imprisonment in September 2007 for fraud, Corbett called on the government to change the law which allowed the former UKIP MEP to be paid in full during his spell in jail. The Minister responsible for payment of MEPs (and MPs), Harriet Harman
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman QC is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessorPeckham constituency from 1982 to 1997...
promised to look into the matter.
Defeat
He lost his seat in the 2009 European Parliament electionsEuropean Parliament election, 2009
Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history...
, which saw a big fall in the Labour share of the vote in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandal. The BNP took the seat. The BBC website carried the following comment from their European editor, Mark Mardell:
Mark Mardell had previously referred to Richard Corbett as:
After the European Parliament
Corbett spent two months in Ireland from August to October 2009 helping (behind the scenes) the "Yes" campaign in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which resulted in an overwhelming 67% in favour.In December 2009 he was invited to join the private office ("cabinet") of the first full-time President of the European Council
European Council
The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy...
, Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Achille Van Rompuy is the first long-term and full-time President of the European Council...
, as his advisor on constitutional issues, but also handling his relations with the European Parliament and national parliaments, with the Committee of Regions and the Economic and Social Committee as well as helping on relations with some governments, including the UK .
Publications
- 'The Treaty of Maastricht: from conception to ratification' Longman - Cartermill Publishing] (1993) ISBN 0582209064
- The European Parliament's Role in Closer European Integration, London, Macmillan (1998)ISBN 0-333-72252-3 and New York, St Martin's Press (1998) ISBN 0-312-21103-1. Reprinted in paperback by Palgrave, London (2001) ISBN 0-333-94938-2
- 'Electing Europe's First Parliament' Fabian tract, with Rod Northawl, Fabian Society, London (1977) ISBN 0307 7535
- 'A Socialist Policy for Europe', pamphlet with Geoff Harris, introduction by thr Rt Hon Denis Howell MP. London, Labour Movement for Europe (1985)
- 'Progress and Prospects' (of the draft treaty on European Union) in Juliet Lodge (ed), Foreword by Altiero Spinelli; 'European Union: The European Community in Search of a Future' London, Macmillan (1986) ISBN 0-333-39739-8
- 'The 1985 Intergovernmental Conference and the Single European Act' in Roy Pryce (ed); The Dynamics of European Union', London, Croom Helm (1987) ISBN 0-7099-4327-X
- 'The European Parliament's new "Single Act" Powers, in 'Nieuw Europa' Magazine, year 15, nr 1 (1989), The Hague
- 'Representing the People', in A.Duff, J. Pinder and R. Pryce (eds); Maastricht and Beyond, London, Routledge (1994)
- 'The European Parliament and the Idea of European Representative Government' in John Pinder (ed), Foreword by Princess Margariet of the Netherlands; 'Foundations of Democracy in the European Union' London, Macmillan (1999) ISBN 0-333-77470-1 and New York, St Martin's Press (1999) ISBN 0-312-22296-3
- 'A Very Special Parliament: The European Parliament in the Twenty-First Century' in 'The Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol 8' (2002). Frank Cass. ISBN 1357-2334
- 'Combatting Mythology and Changing Reality: the Debate on the Future of Europe', London, Labour Movement for Europe (2003)
- 'The EU - Who makes the decisions? A guide to the process and the UK's role'. London, European Movement (2006)
- 'The European Parliament 2004-2009' in Juliet Lodge (ed), 'The 2009 elections to the European Parliament'. Palgrave macmillan 2010 ISBN 978-0-230-23040-8
- Numerous newspaper articles and articles in academic journals